Lancia Delta S4
Encyclopedia
Lancia
Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...
Delta S4 is a Group B
Group B
Group B was a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles in sportscar racing and rallying regulated by the FIA. The Group B regulations fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. However, a series of major accidents, some fatal, were...
rally car that competed in the World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
in 1985
1985 World Rally Championship season
The 1985 World Rally Championship season was the 13th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 12 rallies following the same schedule as the previous season. Peugeot Sport's Timo Salonen beat Audi Sport's Stig Blomqvist and Walter...
and 1986
1986 World Rally Championship season
The 1986 World Rally Championship season was the 14th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 13 rallies, including all twelve venues of the previous season as well as the addition of the Olympus Rally...
, until Group B cars were banned from competition by the FIA. The car replaced and was an evolution of the Lancia 037
Lancia 037
The Lancia Rally 037 was a mid-engine rally car built by Lancia in the early 1980s purely for the FIA Group B World Rally Championship. Driven by Markku Alén, Attilio Bettega, and Walter Röhrl, the car won Lancia the manufacturers' world championship in the 1983 season...
Monte Carlo. The S4 took full advantage of the Group B regulations, and featured a midship-mounted engine and all-wheel drive for superior traction and handling. The car's 1759 cc four-cylinder engine combined supercharging and turbocharging to reduce turbo lag at low RPM. Officially the car produced 480 horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
(352 kW). Independent figures show the S4 could accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometre per hour on gravel in under 2.3 seconds. An engine capacity multiple of 1.4 was applied to forced induction engines by the FIA and the choice of 1759 cc put the S4 in the under 2500 cc class which allowed a min weight of 890 kg (1,962 lb). The combined super/turbocharger system was a development of the 037 engine that produced 350 hp with a supercharger only. This was competitive with the Audi Quattro in 1984 which also had 350 hp, but by the 1985 season Audi's S1 was homologated with 600 hp. Consequently, a turbo had to be added to the S4 engine design to remain competitive.
Like Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...
's earlier 205 T16, the mid-engine Lancia Delta S4 was a Delta
Lancia Delta
The Lancia Delta is a small family car produced by Italian automaker Lancia with the first generation being produced between 1979 and 1994, the second generation running from 1993 until 1999, and the third generation Delta entering production in 2008. It was first shown inFrankfurt Motor Show in 1979...
in name and body styling only (for marketing purposes), and shared virtually nothing in terms of construction with the production front-engine Delta. The chassis was tubular space frame construction much like the 037. It featured long travel double wishbone suspension front and rear, with a single large coil over at the front and separate spring and twin shock absorber at the rear. The bodywork was made of a carbon fibre composite with front and rear bodywork fully detachable for fast replacement due to accident damage, allowing ease of access during on-event servicing. The bodywork featured several aerodynamic aids including bonnet opening behind the front-mounted water radiator with Gurney flap
Gurney flap
The Gurney Flap is a small flat tab projecting from the trailing edge of a wing. Typically it is set at a right angle to the pressure side surface of the airfoil,and projects 1% to 2% of the wing chord....
, front splitter and winglets molded into the front bumper panel, flexible front skirt, and rear deck lid wing that featured both a full aerofoil wind section twinned with a deflection Spoiler
Spoiler (automotive)
A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to 'spoil' unfavorable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion. Spoilers on the front of a vehicle are often called air dams, because in addition to directing air flow they also reduce the amount of air...
. The door construction style was brought from the 037 with a hollow shell all-Kevlar construction that had no inner door skin, no door handle or window winder. The door was opened with a small loop and the windows were fixed perspex with small sliding panels to allow some ventilation and passing of time cards etc. For homologation purposes, Lancia built 200 road-going S4 Stradales. Like the rally car, these were mid-engined with 1.8-litre engines, producing 250 PS in road tune.
The Group S Lancia ECV
Lancia ECV
The Lancia ECV was a prototype Group S rally car developed by the Italian manufacturer Lancia to replace the Lancia Delta S4 in World Rally Championship competition for the 1988 season. However, Group B as well as Group S cars were banned from competition by the FIA in late 1986 due to safety...
was to replace the Delta S4 in the 1987 season
1987 World Rally Championship season
The 1987 World Rally Championship season was the 15th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 13 rallies in the same venues of the previous season...
but Group S was scrapped along with Group B and Lancia used the production-derived Delta
Lancia Delta
The Lancia Delta is a small family car produced by Italian automaker Lancia with the first generation being produced between 1979 and 1994, the second generation running from 1993 until 1999, and the third generation Delta entering production in 2008. It was first shown inFrankfurt Motor Show in 1979...
in 1987.
In competition the car won its first event, the 1985 RAC Rally in the hands of Henri Toivonen
Henri Toivonen
Henri Pauli Toivonen was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer.Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came...
and carried Markku Alén
Markku Alén
Markku Allan Alén is a Finnish former rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru and Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the record for most stage wins in the series until 2011...
to second in the drivers' championship the following year. For two weeks after the end of the 1986 season Alen was champion until the FIA annulled the results of the Sanremo Rally due to irregular technical scrutineering. Alén had won that event and the loss of points handed the title to Peugeot's Juha Kankkunen
Juha Kankkunen
Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which were both once records in the series...
. All told, in 1986 there were 3 wins for the Delta S4 (Sanremo not included). The Monte Carlo Rally
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...
by Toivonen, Rally Argentina
Rally Argentina
The Rally Argentina is an Argentine rally competition that has been both a round of the World Rally Championship and also the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The rally is also a round of the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championship...
by Massimo Biasion
Massimo Biasion
Massimo 'Miki' Biasion is an Italian rally driver, two times world rally champion.-Career:Born at Bassano del Grappa, Biasion came to prominence in the early 1980s, winning both the Italian and European Rally Championships in 1983, driving a Lancia 037...
and the Olympus Rally
Olympus Rally
The Olympus Rally is an event in the motorsport of rallying. While it has usually been run as a national rally, in 1986-1988, it was a round in the FIA World Rally Championship, the most recent time a WRC rally has been run in the United States....
by Alén. The car also won the 1986 European Rally Championship
European Rally Championship
The European Rally Championship is the European continental championship series in rallying. It is organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile .-History:...
with Italian driver Fabrizio Tabaton
Fabrizio Tabaton
Fabrizio Tabaton is an Italian former rally driver.-European Rally Championship:Competing for the H.F. Grifone team, he had his biggest successes in the European Rally Championship, which he won with a Lancia Delta S4 in 1986, and with a Lancia Delta Integrale and a Delta HF 4WD in 1988...
, whose car was run by Italian team HF GRIFONE in ESSO
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
livery. The factory supported Jolly Club
Jolly Club
Jolly Club was a Italian racing team, which competed in the World Rally Championship and Formula 1, it was mainly connected to brands like Lancia and Alfa Romeo. It was created in 1957 in Milan by idea of Mario Angiolini, the team won several championships...
team also ran cars in TOTIP livery, one of which was for Dario Cerrato.
The car's legacy was tainted by the fatal crashes of Toivonen and co-driver
Co-driver
Co-driver is the term given to the navigator of rally car in the sport of rally racing, who sits in the front passenger seat. The co-driver's job is to navigate, by reading off a set of pacenotes to the driver, often over a radio headset, due to the high level of noise in the car...
Sergio Cresto
Sergio Cresto
Sergio Cresto was the co-driver of Henri Toivonen at the Lancia Martini team for the 1986 World Rally Championship season. He was also a former co-driver for fellow Lancia employee, the Italian driver Attilio Bettega....
on the 1986 Tour de Corse
Tour de Corse
The Tour de Corse - Rallye de France is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was part of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season to 2008. The name "Tour de Corse" refers to the fact that in the early days it was run around the island; nowadays it only features...
, where the Finnish driver inexplicably missed a tight left-hand hairpin bend and plunged into a ravine, incinerating the car and the two drivers.
Other information
The method of turbocharging and supercharging an engine is referred to as twin charging. This technology is very rarely used because most racing restricts to one means of forced induction, and rarely on road cars as its benefits lie mostly in the realm of boost curve fine tuning (quicker boost response) and allowing for said with the use of a freer flowing turbine/housing spec on the turbo to make it more efficient (or less inefficient, compared to the tighter housing needed to minimise lag) at higher rpm. Such twin charging does still see use in some hillclimb racing, where throttle and boost response are paramount over peak power concerns. The S4 itself, when everything worked perfectly, managed to hit 2.2 bars (32 psi) boost.Nissan produced the March Superturbo in 1987 which was also both supercharged and turbocharged. The most recent application of twin charging is found in Volkswagen's 1.4 TSI engine, launched in 2006.
Complete results in the World Rally Championship
| Season | Team | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Pos | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 1985 World Rally Championship season The 1985 World Rally Championship season was the 13th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 12 rallies following the same schedule as the previous season. Peugeot Sport's Timo Salonen beat Audi Sport's Stig Blomqvist and Walter... |
Martini Racing | MON Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and... |
SWE Swedish Rally The Uddeholm Swedish Rally , formerly the Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in Värmland, Sweden in early February. First held in 1950, when it was called the Rally to the Midnight Sun with start and finish at separate locations, seventeen years later both start and finish... |
POR Rally de Portugal The Rally de Portugal is a rally competition held in Portugal. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Championship in 1973... |
KEN Safari Rally The Safari Rally is considered by many to be the world's toughest rally. It was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II... |
FRA Tour de Corse The Tour de Corse - Rallye de France is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was part of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season to 2008. The name "Tour de Corse" refers to the fact that in the early days it was run around the island; nowadays it only features... |
GRE | NZL Rally New Zealand The Rally New Zealand was first held in Taupo in 1969, and was subsequently staged in Canterbury, before moving back to the North Island in 1971.The rally was included as a round of the World Championship in 1977... |
ARG Rally Argentina The Rally Argentina is an Argentine rally competition that has been both a round of the World Rally Championship and also the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The rally is also a round of the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championship... |
FIN Rally Finland The Neste Oil Rally Finland is a rally event driven in the Jyväskylä area in Central Finland. It is the biggest annually organised public event in the Nordic countries, gathering over 500,000 spectators every year.... |
ITA Rallye Sanremo Rallye Sanremo is a rally competition held in Sanremo, Italy. Except for the 1995 event, the event was part of the FIA World Rally Championship schedule from the 1973 season to the 2003 season. Currently, it is a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and the Italian national rally... |
CIV Rallye Côte d'Ivoire The Rallye Côte d'Ivoire is a rally race held annually in Côte d'Ivoire in Africa. In common with other races on the continent, it is known for its arduous conditions and high attrition rate among competitors. It was part of the World Rally Championship for drivers and manufacturers from 1978 to... |
GBR Rally GB Wales Rally GB is the largest and most high profile motor rally in the United Kingdom. It is a round of the FIA World Rally Championship and was formerly a round of the MSA British Rally Championship and is based in and around the city of Cardiff in Wales... |
3 | 70 | ||
 Finland Markku AlénMarkku Alén Markku Allan Alén is a Finnish former rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru and Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the record for most stage wins in the series until 2011... |
2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Finland Henri Toivonen Henri Toivonen Henri Pauli Toivonen was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer.Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came... |
1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1986 1986 World Rally Championship season The 1986 World Rally Championship season was the 14th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile World Rally Championship . The season consisted of 13 rallies, including all twelve venues of the previous season as well as the addition of the Olympus Rally... |
Martini Lancia | MON Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and... |
SWE Swedish Rally The Uddeholm Swedish Rally , formerly the Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in Värmland, Sweden in early February. First held in 1950, when it was called the Rally to the Midnight Sun with start and finish at separate locations, seventeen years later both start and finish... |
POR Rally de Portugal The Rally de Portugal is a rally competition held in Portugal. First held in 1967, the seventh running of the race, the 7º TAP Rallye de Portugal was the third event in the inaugural FIA World Rally Championship in 1973... |
KEN Safari Rally The Safari Rally is considered by many to be the world's toughest rally. It was first held from 27 May to 1 June 1953 as the East African Coronation Safari in Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II... |
FRA Tour de Corse The Tour de Corse - Rallye de France is a rally first held in 1956 on the island of Corsica. It was part of the World Rally Championship from the inaugural 1973 season to 2008. The name "Tour de Corse" refers to the fact that in the early days it was run around the island; nowadays it only features... |
GRE | NZL Rally New Zealand The Rally New Zealand was first held in Taupo in 1969, and was subsequently staged in Canterbury, before moving back to the North Island in 1971.The rally was included as a round of the World Championship in 1977... |
ARG Rally Argentina The Rally Argentina is an Argentine rally competition that has been both a round of the World Rally Championship and also the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The rally is also a round of the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championship... |
FIN Rally Finland The Neste Oil Rally Finland is a rally event driven in the Jyväskylä area in Central Finland. It is the biggest annually organised public event in the Nordic countries, gathering over 500,000 spectators every year.... |
CIV Rallye Côte d'Ivoire The Rallye Côte d'Ivoire is a rally race held annually in Côte d'Ivoire in Africa. In common with other races on the continent, it is known for its arduous conditions and high attrition rate among competitors. It was part of the World Rally Championship for drivers and manufacturers from 1978 to... |
ITA Rallye Sanremo Rallye Sanremo is a rally competition held in Sanremo, Italy. Except for the 1995 event, the event was part of the FIA World Rally Championship schedule from the 1973 season to the 2003 season. Currently, it is a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and the Italian national rally... |
GBR Rally GB Wales Rally GB is the largest and most high profile motor rally in the United Kingdom. It is a round of the FIA World Rally Championship and was formerly a round of the MSA British Rally Championship and is based in and around the city of Cardiff in Wales... |
USA Olympus Rally The Olympus Rally is an event in the motorsport of rallying. While it has usually been run as a national rally, in 1986-1988, it was a round in the FIA World Rally Championship, the most recent time a WRC rally has been run in the United States.... |
2 | 122 | |
| Finland Markku Alén Markku Alén Markku Allan Alén is a Finnish former rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru and Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the record for most stage wins in the series until 2011... |
NF | 2 | NF | NF | NF | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Finland Henri Toivonen Henri Toivonen Henri Pauli Toivonen was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer.Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came... |
1 | NF | NF | NF | |||||||||||||
 Italy Miki Biasion |
NF | NF | NF | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||
 Sweden Mikael EricssonMikael Ericsson Mikael Ericsson is a Swedish former rally driver. During his career he competed in 40 events in the World Rally Championship, including two victories consecutively in 1989, his best year, when he finished fourth overall.... |
NF | 4 | 5 | NF | |||||||||||||
 Argentina Jorge RecaldeJorge Recalde Jorge Raúl Recalde was an Argentine rally driver born in Mina Clavero.Recalde had a great knowledge of the roads of the Sierras de Córdoba, and began racing in 1970 in the "Turismo Mejorado" class... |
4 | ||||||||||||||||
| Sweden Kalle Grundel |
6 | ||||||||||||||||
| Italy Dario Cerrato |
2 |